Dining experiences may be coarsely divided into two classes. In the first class, a patron orders all the components of a meal for one or more persons at a single opportunity. The patron then pays for the accumulated total, the staff prepares and provides the ordered components at a delivery point for pick-up by the patron or delivery to the patron, and the patron then leaves with the meal or consumes it on the premises. This type of dining experience is typically called fast food dining. As the moniker denotes, this type of dining is directed to prompt specification of meal components, immediate payment, relatively quick production and, usually, non-leisurely consumption of the food. The menus for such an experience is typically comprised of an illuminated and illustrated display of the various meal components and/or meal combinations available for the eating establishment with their prices. To enhance the speed of food ordering and production, the menu items change infrequently and menus for different meals of the day, such as the breakfast menu and lunch menu, are displayed simultaneously with a notice of the times at which the different meal types are available. The standard menu items and limited selections help ensure the dining experience comports well with its identification as “fast food.”
A second type of dining experience is more leisurely and typically requires more staff for the dining experience. This type of dining experience begins with one or more dining guests being greeted by a restaurant facilities manager. The facilities manager inquires about the size of the dining party and any special considerations required for their seating, such as environmental matters (smoking or non-smoking) and the need for a special arrangement or views available from the various seating locations. After confirming an appropriate seating location is available for the party, the facilities manager seats the dining party, distributes menus, and notifies the serving personnel of the need to provide water and other complementary meal items, such as bread, to the table.
Shortly after the service of the complementary meal accompaniments, the server attends to the table to answer questions that diners may have and to receive the dining party's orders for drinks. The meal then continues with the server bringing an ordered course, distributing the items, and receiving the party's orders for the next course. If the party has time constraints that require a more expeditiously served meal, they may order more than one course at a time. However, the tempo of the dining experience is typically measured by several food service, next course ordering intervals until all of the courses for the meal have been ordered, served, and consumed. After confirming satisfactory completion of the meal, the server then presents the bill for the meal and returns to retrieve the payment before presenting the receipt for the termination of the establishment's service for the meal.
This second type of dining experience is more labor intensive as the pace of the meal is more or less dictated by the decisions of the dining party to place their orders of subsequent courses and the time the party members take to consume each course. Sometimes, the dining experience is interrupted by the server making appearances to receive orders for a subsequent course before the party is ready to order. The party may be involved in intense conversation or debating the relative merits of menu items. In upscale restaurants, the patrons may be deliberating the selection of a wine that properly complements the various foods being ordered by the party members. The appearance of the server during these periods of intense conversation or deliberations may not be well received by the patrons. On the other hand, a server may perceive a dining party's desire to be undisturbed and become unavailable when the party has a question that requires information from the server. Seeking to obtain the server's attention may then become problematic and frustrate the overall dining experience for the patrons. Thus, there is a delicate balance in a sever being available for orders or answering questions to enhance the dining experience and the restaurant's interest in processing a dining party as efficiently as possible so the table may be made available for another seating.
Many food items in restaurants providing meals that are more leisurely consumed meals than fast food meals, do not retain freshness for extended periods of time or spoil easily. Consequently, the restaurant management prefers to serve these items before they pass the point of optimal flavor or appearance and have to be discarded. To encourage consumption of these items, establishments offer specials on dishes prepared with these items to diners. However, restaurants that use printed menus either have to print an addendum for each menu or, to avoid the cost of printing an addendum, they have the servers orally announce these specials to patrons at the presentation of the menus. Frequently, patrons forget these oral announcements and only consider the standard items from the printed menu for their dining choices.
To address issues related to restaurant management, previously known systems have used been proposed that allow patrons to order menu items for various courses to facilitate their service to the patrons. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,263 is directed to a system that permits patrons to order all of the items for various meal courses and it then calculates preparation times for the items so the meal progresses in accordance with the calculated timing patterns. While such a system reduces the need for a server to take all of the various orders for the meal courses and efficiently times the preparation and delivery of the food to the table, it hardly accounts for the dining patron's desires. Some people who eat at such establishments are seeking an unhurried meal or, at the least, enjoying a meal at a pace that does not require them to consume food at a rate that conforms to the kitchen's rate of production. Systems that require a patron to order an entire meal at a single time address the restaurant's goal of processing as many patrons as possible but they may leave the patrons feeling that their dining experience was akin to a production line pace. Repeat business, an important component of restaurant stability and profitability, is not as likely in establishments using such systems.
In an attempt to provide more timely notice of specials related to oversupply of food items in a kitchen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,268 discloses a system and method for printing menus for patrons upon their time of arrival. Alternatively, the menu may be displayed on a monitor to facilitate timely notification of specials. However, the system of this patent still requires a server to take an order and the order for the entire meal is taken once during the dining experience.
What is needed is a system and method for taking orders from patrons seeking a leisurely dining experience that allows the patrons to place orders without having to have a server present at the table.
What is needed is a system and method for taking orders from patrons in a restaurant that facilitates timely interaction between patrons and servers for information requests or ancillary condiment or complementary food item service.
What is needed is a system and method for taking orders from patrons that enables patrons to participate in the scheduling of the preparation and delivery of their orders.
What is needed is a system and method for displaying food specials in a manner that more closely coincides with their interest in a particular course of a meal.